


the travelling nurse

by candidshot



Series: stories from an alternate universe [14]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - After College/University, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-06-28 07:38:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15702777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/candidshot/pseuds/candidshot
Summary: Alec and Magnus have known each since university but after graduation, didn't keep in touch... until one day Magnus got a missed call.An AU career x love Malec story.





	the travelling nurse

One day, Magnus got a missed call.  
  
Checking the number his heart did flip and roll – his thumb hovering over the caller’s name.  
  
It’s been so long since they’d spoken.  
  
They met a while back, a number of years ago while in that final semester of grad school.

It would take a month before Magnus conveniently called back.

“I don’t see a ring”.  
  
“Well of course not”, Alec smiled, “You weren’t here”.  
  
Magnus raised an eyebrow feeling flattered, “Then you should’ve come find me”.  
  
“Well…” Alec turned the mug of coffee in his hands before taking a sip, “Turns out I’m a workaholic”.  
  
Magnus took a sip of his tea. The last time they saw each other was at gradation. “I was hoping to hear something a bit more romantic”.  
  
This time, they both laughed – hearty and full of eye crinkles and teeth.  
  
Back in university, around the time when everyone was losing their minds with final projects and theses, there were times, in a corner at the back of the main library –away from the hustle, one would find Magnus tucked away in a claimed quietness with a week’s worth of newspapers solving puzzles. The first time Alec stumbled upon on him, he too was trying to escape the growing anxiousness from the other hopeful graduates.

After about the first four coincidences of meetings, the following four were purely planned by Alec. He would just take his stack of heavy books and sat two steps away from Magnus – just the two of them in the back of the old library among old dusty forgotten hardcover encyclopedias. 

On the ninth meeting, Magnus caught Alec peeking over and asked, “Interested?” holding out the newspaper sheet.

Alec was so surprised that he couldn’t even find the voice to answer and only shook his head.

But the distance between them got shorter, and by the eleventh meeting, Alec bravely asked, “Why don’t you just buy a book?”

“A book?” Magnus repeated, more confused than surprised, “What book? Why would I buy a book?”

“The bookshop two blocks down has some really big crossword puzzle books. Then you wouldn’t have to bother with all these newspapers”.

“Oh…”, Magnus’s answer lingered, “But the newspapers are free”.

“True”, Alec smiled at him, “I forgot that college students are poor”.

“I didn’t say that”, Magnus handed him a sheet and a pen.

“So you’re rich?” Alec switched question, taking the puzzle sheet but took up his own pen.

“I didn’t say that either”.

So Alec glanced over at Magnus much amused and felt his heart skip a beat when a stray ray from the sun streaked across Magnus’s face and over his eyes showing Alec the softest brown he was sure was the rarest of mankind’s— a total gem, Magnus had for eyes.

The distance between them got even shorter.

It got so short that soon, their legs touched sitting side by side.  
  
Days were comfortable.  
  
Time was at her best.  
  
Good-bye never crossed their minds.  
  
“I don’t see a ring on yours either”, Alec nudged to Magnus’s left hand with a raise of his eyebrows.  
  
“Well I think you already answered that question for us both”, Magnus smirked, taking another sip of tea.  
  
There was a relaxed smile in Alec’s eyes and around his lips, “That makes us the perfect pair, doesn’t it?”  
  
“If we were perfect then we would both be wearing each other’s ring”.

“—true”, Alec lightly giggled that soon frizzled out into a smile of reminiscence, a throwback to a past when they were truly known as the pair in the back of the library until closing time. The librarians all thought they were hard at studying but between doing puzzles and random chats, Alec was fascinated with Magnus’s fixation on a world map he coloured, folded and kept in his notebook.

“Magnus, why did you call me today?”  
  
“Would tomorrow have been better?”  
  
Magnus was being sly.

“Actually, yesterday or last week would’ve been fine too”, Alec replied, leaving no chance to delay the inevitable, “– even next week”.  
  
“Well…”, Magnus started to say, again turning the cup of tea around in his hands, “I saw your number”.  
  
“But it must have always been there so why today?”

If there was one thing Magnus loved and hated about Alec, it was the way Alec doesn’t hold back his feelings. His confessions were always so sudden and blunt – but also innocent and beautiful, “Who knows…?”, he answered, a genuineness in his expression, “Maybe it’s simply just time to meet you”.  
  
Alec’s voice did carry a light chuckle. “You talk as though fate had it written down for today”.  
  
“Well...” Magnus tapped his finger against the edges of the cup, not shifting his gaze from Alec, “It’s not impossible”.  
  
Not exactly the reply Alec was expecting but it sent warm waves around his belly— a warm, light and nostalgic feeling his heart had missed - it was all resurfacing.  
  
Because even though it was Magnus who’d called him that evening, Alec had called first.

But even so, even if they clicked years ago, the past will always be the past because people change, their hearts change over time and was bound to have grown wiser – so too do desires, desires can be tamed so even if the body and the heart crave something, the brain would’ve also grown stronger to reason... to resist – they’d become grown-ups with lingered dreams and the whole world before them.  
  
“Do you want another cup of tea or coffee, maybe?” Alec asked, his eyes dead set on his decision already made to drag out their coffee meeting as long as possible.  
  
Magnus smiled, amused, his finger still tapping on the rim of the mug, “I’m already on our fourth cup. I don’t think my bladder would keep up”.  
  
“What are you, an old man?” Alec laughed, “Then how about a smoothie or a slice of cake?”  
  
“Are you trying to get me fat?”  
  
Alec sipped on the last of his coffee and then took a long pause with an aura of contemplation, “I’m trying to get us back to that time”.  
  
“That’s not possible”.  
  
“But it’s not completely impossible. You said it yourself, today was made for possibilities”.

“I said no such thing”.

“Yes you did”, Alec crinkled his forehead at him, “You said what you said and I heard what I heard and I was the only one listening so you can’t disprove what you said”.

And Magnus laughed, dressed back in his chair and shook his head at Alec’s skewed albeit cute logic, “Okay, fine. Get us back to that time at what point?”

Alec shrugged, looking over Magnus’s shoulder as though he’ll find the answer there, “Like when we were honest with each other”.  
  
Really, there was nothing grand or unbelievable about it— Magnus simply loved Alec for always effortlessly breaking down his walls and setting him free to feel.  
  
Taking up the dessert menu and browsing it over, Magnus finally asked, “When was I ever dishonest?”  
  
So Alec reached across the table, held his hands and played with his fingers, “Magnus, tell me what to do. What do you want me to do?”  
  
The question itself coursed like voltage shocking him with possibilities of not just love but adventure – a companionship that would be easy on him. Being with Alec had always relaxed him and allowed him to emotionally grow – a life of tiny moments with Alec would always excite and make happy his soul.  
  
“Well for starters, I want us to meet again”, Magnus said.  
  
There was relief in Alec’s smile. “And before that?”  
  
“I want to order this cake set”.  
  
Alec chuckled this time, “And even before that?”  
  
“And…”, Magnus wiped his lips with a swipe of his tongue, “Lend me your mouth for a bit”.  
  
Alec’s expression was a mix of shock at the dare, “Here?”  
  
“Why not? Or better yet, let’s go”.  
  
Alec was all smiles, already standing, “Where to?”  
  
“Somewhere with you and with no one in the background”.  
  
At that, Alec’s chuckle was perhaps a perfect blend of happiness and nervousness, “And how far are we going?”  
  
"Such eagerness", Magnus teased him with a grin, “Keep it up”.  
  
But before Alec could follow up with a reply, he was pushed against a wall and very swiftly Magnus’s lips were on him – wet warm lips that kissed him like a savoury treat - lips that drank him down like a traveller out at desert had finally found an oasis. Magnus’s tongue was thick and smooth tasting of fresh jasmine from his tea.  
  
And thank goodness for Thursdays. Thursdays meant people had by then long gotten over their Monday blues and Friday being the next day, meant people were more relaxed going about their way leaving no one to pry into their shameless display of affection.  
  
Even though they were tucked away in a side street.  
  
Both panting breathlessly, “So what now?” Alec asked, not releasing his hands from Magnus’s waistline.  
  
“I think it’s your turn”, Magnus answered, licking his lips, savouring every drop of Alec. “Alexander, what do you want from me?”  
  
And everything tingled — tingled as they held each other while boiling full of emotions bubbling and reaching for a place to go… when in the midst of their contemplative quietness, Alec’s phone started to ring.

He answered.

Stayed a while then turned back around with an apologetic smile, “I have to go”.  
  
Magnus nodded. The inevitable will always happen. And a confession and a kiss won’t change that.  
  
That was just how it was.  
  
Loving someone was one thing but committing to that relationship was a completely different story.  
  
They’ve both got things to do;

Lives to live,

Breakthroughs to be made,

And they were very aware that the love in the world as it was, won’t give them those things just yet.  
  
But that still wasn’t a good enough reason not take the love they could and use it wisely— because they still had 'today'.  
  
“Call me when you’re free. I should be around”, Magnus told him.  
  
Alec nodded, smiled then leant in and captured Magnus’s lips betwixt his one more time. “I definitely will. I promise”.  
  
“It’s not that serious”.  
  
“Yes, it is”.  
  
“Then I’ll wait for it”, Alec replied with a soft smile.

And just before Alec turned and walked away, he added, “Thanks for returning my call today”.

“Which reminds me…”, Magnus returned the warm gesture, “Why did you call me?”

So Alec looked at him with a knowing grin and waved his hand, “My finger has no ring”.

Magnus rolled his eyes and laughed, watching Alec go a few steps before calling out, “By the way, where are you off to at this time of the night?”  
  
 “What? Don’t trust me already?” Alec arched an eyebrow with a daring grin, “The hospital”, he answered, holding up a set of stethoscope, “Unlike nurses like you who get to roam freely, I’m stuck at one place and on call”.  
  
Life was interesting and exciting in a lot of ways.

But life was also an existence filled with gains and losses. Magnus remained hopeful for the gainful part of life – the goodness that came even with a bit of sacrifice. And so, looking up into the city sky he sighed before then reaching for his phone buzzing in his pocket— probably a notification of his next assignment.  
  
You see—  
  
Magnus wasn’t just any nurse.  
  
He was a travel nurse.  
  
So with a sense of duty, though with a heavy heart at yet again leaving the man he loved behind, he checked the notification but only to have had his lips spread themselves into a grin of excitement.  
  
It was Alec who had texted him;  
  
\--- Magnus, was it always this easy to fall in love with you?  
  
So he laughed a while then replied;  
  
\--- Well it’s not like you make it any harder for me either.  
  
They continued texting for a bit— connecting even more.  
  
Dashing loads of sweetness and honesty at each other.  
  
And a bit of sneaky bitter-sweetness too.  
  
\--- If I call you tomorrow, will you still be here?  
  
\--- Yes. But I’m not sure of the day after.  
  
\--- I’ll admit that I love you Magnus, but you’re no good for my heart.  
  
\--- Well it comes with the package XD  
  
So when Magnus’s phone beeped again, his smile from just a second before fell from his face. His next assignment actually came.  
  
\--- Alexander, seems like I’ll have to take a rain check on tomorrow and the day after and a few more after that.  
  
\--- Until when?  
  
\--- 13 weeks or so.  
  
\--- What an unlucky number.  
  
\--- Wait for me?  
  
\--- I’m already waiting.  
  
\--- Don’t miss me too much.  
  
\--- Don’t ask the impossible.

Magnus had the widest smile and replied;

\--- Then I guess I’ll just have to take my chances like today.

And so,

On the day after,

Magnus left the city with feelings that amounted to anticipation and excitement for when he could see Alec again.

For perhaps by then, time would settle the odds— and let them be.

Magnus certainly thought so.

And Alec counted on it.

★*☆♪

~ the travelling nurse  
magnus x alec


End file.
